Vladimir Zhirinovsky intends to abolish the post of the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia

The fellow party members do not see any alternative to Zhirinovsky

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The leader of the oldest Russian party LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky is ready to quit the post of the party’s chairman and pass his powers to the collegiate body – the supreme council of the party, Zhirinovsky stated at the 25th anniversary congress of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) in Moscow on Thursday. The LDPR congress also claimed that the annual presidential state-of-the-nation address is written on the recommendations of Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky is ready to quit his post and pass his powers to the special collegiate body, the Kommersant daily reported.

“Still I have enough forces, by it is needed to abolish the post of the party’s chairman at all for the future, and a collegiate body should be formed. We will most likely introduce this provision in the charter that the collegiate body takes all decisions,” Zhirinovsky said, noting that there are no people wishing to become his successor.

“I will cede it with pleasure, but there are no people who want to take it. Who wants it?” the newspaper quoted the LDPR leader as saying. Meanwhile, Zhirinovsky warned that if someone becomes the party’s leader instead of him, the LDPR rating will fall, and the party will not be elected in the State Duma.

It is not ruled out that Zhirinovsky’s proposal will be considered already at a party’s congress in March 2013, deputy chairman of the LDPR faction in the State Duma Vladimir Ovsyannikov explained. The chairman of the party and the supreme council of the party will be elected at the congress over the expiry of their powers. “The collegiate body already exists in the LDPR. This is the supreme council of the party,” Ovsyannikov noted. “But Vladimir Volfovich probably just wants to remove the term “chairman” from the terminology of the party as one party functionary, who is controlling the whole party. Probably, the supreme council will be vested with these powers,” he remarked.

In reply to the question whether this is linked with Zhirinovsky’s age (66 years), Ovsyannikov replied categorically, “Thanks God, if any young person has such a strong health, enthusiasm and the fountain of ideas at this age. Vladimir Zhirinovsky will have enough forces for many years to come.”

The fellow party members do not see any alternative to Zhirinovsky. “The brand in the politics and in the trade matters very much. The party is interested in such a most efficient leader as Zhirinovsky to lead it,” State Duma deputy Maxim Rokhmistrov said.

A Kommersant source in the State Duma said that the deputies have been discussing for a long time Zhirinovsky’s decision to pass the reigns of power in the party to his son, State Duma Vice-Speaker from the LDPR Igor Lebedev.

“The collective body is a step to the full transfer of the ruling in the party to his son. Igor Lebedev is a smart, promising candidate, but a sharp transfer of the leadership from the father to the son may evoke destabilization in the party, because the LDPR is Zhirinovsky’s party. The time is needed to create the mechanisms for the change of power,” head of the legal service of the Communist Party of Russia Vadim Solovyev believes.

“Zhirinovsky is tired and has already exhausted his potential as a politician,” political expert Valery Solovey believes, assuming that “the collegiate body will manage the party de jure with Igor Lebedev in the head of it,” but “Vladimir Zhirinovsky will be controlling the management of the party, because the LDPR is the main asset of his family.” Expert of the Indem foundation Yuri Korgunyuk believes that the LDPR without Vladimir Zhirinovsky will cease to exist, “therefore, his proposal is the farce.”

The Kommersant daily recalled that the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia was formed at the initiative of Vladimir Zhirinovsky in 1989 and was called the Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union – LDPSS. In 1992 the party was renamed in the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. All this time Zhirinovsky was its chairman. The best election result of the LDPR was at the elections to the State Duma in 1993, when the party gained 22.9%, and the lowest percentage in 1999 – 5.9%.